


Paradigm Shift

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-22
Updated: 2011-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 05:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this world, you had to be crazy to stay sane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradigm Shift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tinx_r](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinx_r/gifts).



> Written to her prompt, "Cody thinking of/talking about Nick."

It took Cody exactly three-and-a-half days in-country to realize that everything he thought he knew about life had absolutely nothing at all to do with the hellhole he'd landed in. His preconceived notions about the enemy, friendlies, the army, his fellow soldiers, even himself—they'd been forcibly turned on their collective ear, shaken until he didn't know which end was up. This was a world totally outside his ken, a demented game with rules he didn't understand but with consequences for losing he understood only too well.

Simply put, in this world you had to be crazy to stay sane.

Chopper pilots, though, seemed to have their own special brand of crazy. More than most, they lived their lives on the edge, pushing the boundaries and getting off on the exhilaration that came simply from surviving.

But there was this one guy….

Oh, he was crazy, alright: as far as Cody could tell, the man _had_ no boundaries when he flew. He was good at it, damned good. He'd get a light in his blue eyes, a gleam that spoke volumes about what it meant to him to be in the air, untethered and free. It was, Cody supposed, the same sort of starry-eyed gleam he himself got when he thought about his beloved ocean.

But the light in this pilot's eyes was shadowed by what they'd seen, muted by the knowledge they held. Exhilaration was lost to grim determination and tightly-held fear. Instinctively, Cody knew that it wasn't just his own survival that mattered to this man, but the survival of all who rode with him.

He was, by Cody's new paradigm, probably the sanest guy in the outfit. And someone he wanted to know better.

"Hey, that was some nice flying."

"Thanks."

"I'm Cody Allen."

"Nick. Nick Ryder."


End file.
